Jenna Bush Hager's Mother and Oprah Winfrey Helped Foster Her Love of Reading: 'A Way to Connect With People'

Mar. 15, 2025

Jenna Bush Hager in 2023.Photo:Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Jenna Bush Hageris letting us know about the important readers in her life.The TODAY show co-host, 42, spoke with author Ann Patchett, 60, on the Oct. 31 episode of her podcast,Open Book with Jenna. The two discussed the important “reading partners” in their lives, with Bush Hager sharing that one is her mother, former First LadyLaura Bush, who had her master’s in library science.“When I was little, and in my teens, it was my mom, who … would also say things like, ‘This might be too complicated for where you are in life right now," Bush Hager explained. “And she’d be right.”Bush Hager added that she shares a love of reading with her twin sister,Barbara.“We share books, and I love books, but what I think I really love is a book recommendation.”

Jenna Bush Hager in April 2024.Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Bush Hager said that there are other authors in her life who she connects with, including novelist Emma Straub, who owns the Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic.“I love her so much,” Bush Hager said. “I think indie bookstore owners in our country … have to curate books that their whole community wants to read. So they know what’s out there and what’s publishing.”

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Ann Patchett (left) and Jenna Bush Hager.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty; Eugene Gologursky/Getty

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty; Eugene Gologursky/Getty

“I wanted to see what she was gonna recommend next,” she added. “And I think book recommendations are a way to connect with people.”

“I read it over and over again, and I got a pig for my 9th birthday,” Patchett said. “Because we lived on a farm, and I begged my family to give me a pig.” Patchett even gifted a copy of the novel to bestselling authorKate DiCamillo.“I tracked down, with great effort, an autographed copy ofCharlotte’s Webfor Kate DiCamillo for her 60th birthday, that was a battered up, school version without the paper jacket,” Patchett said. “Just to hold a book that E.B. White had held was incredible.”

Ann Patchett in 2019.Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Patchett, who published her children’s book,The Verts: A Story of Introverts and Extroverts, in September, also discussed her unconventional writing process, including that she wrote the entirety of her acclaimed 2023 novel,Tom Lake, while walking on a treadmill.

“I don’t like a standing desk,” the author said. “When you are walking, and it’s not like I’m going fast or anything, you’re just in perfect alignment. You have no tension in the upper half of your body. Like, your feet hurt at the end of the day, but that’s much better than your neck hurting.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.“It was like walking into the novel,” Patchett added. “It was the best concentration I’ve ever had in my life.”

source: people.com